Maudlingsday – 13 April

It was on the 13 April 1963 when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling announced the abolition of the requirement to have a licence and pay duty to brew beer at home for ones own consumption. This opened the way for the homebrew ‘industry’ to take off. Initially with some rather poor tonic beer kits in health food stores. I remember a group of us brewing a tonic stout in the laboratory in the research association where I was working – it proved to be pretty awful stuff and we ended up throwing it away.

Well Reggie Maudling got it all started – which led to a lot of home brewing and over the years the growth in micro-breweries.